morbid lure which in isolated communities brings folk to any funeral--to
all of these the dead woman merely was a stranger with a strange name
who, temporarily abiding here, had fallen victim to the plague which
filled the land.

Of those who had a hand in the last mortal role she would ever play only
Lobel's private secretary, young Appel, who came to pay the bills and
take over the private effects of this Sarah Glassman and after some
fashion to play the roles of next friend and chief mourner, kenned the
truth. The clergyman having done his duty by a deceased coreligionist,
to him unknown, went back to the city where he belonged. The physician
hurried away from the cemetery to minister to more patients than he
properly could care for. The townspeople scattered, intent upon their
own affairs. Appel returned to headquarters, reporting all well.

At headquarters all likewise went well--so briskly well in fact that
under the urge for haste things essential were accomplished in less time
by fewer craftsmen than had been the case since those primitive
beginnings when Lobel's, then a struggling short-handed concern,
frequently had doubled up its studio staffs for operative service in the
makeshift laboratory. Reporting progress to the president, Mr. Quinlan
expanded with self-satisfaction.

"I'm fixing to show you something in the way of a speed record," he
proudly proclaimed. "The way I looked at it, the fewer people I had
rushing this thing through the factory the less chance there was for
loose talk round the plant and the less loose talk there was going on
round the plant the less chance there was for maybe more loose talk
outside. Yes, I know we'd figured we'd got everything caulked up
air-tight, but I says to myself, 'What's the use in taking a chance on a
leak if you don't have to?'

"So I practically turned the big part of the job--developing and all the
rest of it--over to Josephson, same as we used to do back yonder when we
was starting out in this game and didn't have a regular film cutter and
the camera man had to jump in and develop and cut and assemble and print
and everything. Josephson shot all the scenes for The She-Demon--he
knows the run of it better even than the director does. Besides,
Josephson is naturally close-mouthed. He minds his own business and
never butts in anywhere. To look at him you can't never tell what he's
thinking about. But even if he suspected anything--and, of course, he
don't--he